Hellfekted - Woe to the Kingdom of Blood (2020)^{Release ID: 33347}

Whilst no expert producer, nor a skilled musician myself there are two things likely to kill my enjoyment of an album in an instant. Poor production has its place in extreme music as we all know but clumsy and plain amateur efforts have no place anywhere (it’s not the eighties anymore foks) and Hellfekted (more on that later) just simply have no idea what they are doing with production. Horribly compressed to the point of it sounding like everything is being played through thick material, Woe to the Kingdom of Blood is over-burdened with a terrible production job from the second that promising intro stops.

Their sound is not that raw to justify them being able to get away with this and I hear little blackened style here beyond the vocals in all honesty. With clearly a limited repertoire of musical ideas and skills, Hellfekted become exposed very quickly with no sheen being to be applied to at least attempt to mirror their sloppy playing and predictable direction. Flitting between thrash metal and the occasional burst of NWOBHM the band seem to lurch around for the whole of the eight tracks on show. The bass which sits at the front most of the time soon loses its appeal and becomes grating and the horrible 'thocking' of the drums just makes me want to claw my ear drums out.

Vocally there is not much to write home about either. The scathing attack soon becomes blunted along with everything else and as perhaps the most unaffected element in terms of that production job they really should carry this album a lot better than they do. I cannot help but feel that Hellfekted are just not ready for a full-length release yet and that they would be far better off sticking to an EP format, or even a split for the time being.

The band name is just nonsense and highlights the clear immaturity in the band. That artwork just contributes to this notion that the band are simply stretching themselves far beyond their capabilities and for a debut album they have probably done everything they should not have. Props for putting your own release out but I would suggest a lot more rehearsing and a lot of time on the road would help no ends here.

Hellfekted are a three-piece from my home town, Stoke-on-Trent, in the UK and ply their trade in the area of aggressive blackened thrash. This is a style that has reinvigorated the thrash scene in recent years with, in particular, a number of very good bands and releases coming from Latin America and especially from Chile. So anyway, Woe to the Kingdom of Blood is Hellfekted's debut album and is one of the few blackened thrash albums to hail from the UK, Craven Idol being the only other real exponent of the style I am familiar with that hail from these shores.

Firstly, I've got to say, that cover is horrible but to be fair keeps well within the thrash aesthetic. The second problem I have is that there is something not quite right with the production. I have no technical knowledge of music production but the top end just doesn't sound right to me as if it's clipped or too compressed and the guitar tone and the cymbals seem to suffer markedly as a result. That said, the bottom end is great and Chris Brownrigg's bass in particular benefits from this, it's growling, crunchy rhythms often dominating proceedings. It is an exceedingly aggressive-sounding album, with a breakneck tempo for most of it's runtime and Liam Stubbs' savage and ragged black metal-styled vocals which sound like they are shredding his vocal chords to ribbons with sheer spite and hatred. I would like to have heard a few more solos as they are in fairly short supply here, although soloing don't seem to be Liam Stubbs' strong point - the one during Fractured for example is quite poor, the extended one during Omen of the Antichrist is a little better but is still subpar when compared to the thrash masters.  There are, however, riffs aplenty and pretty good ones they are too in the main. Hellfekted sound better the faster they play and aren't quite as convincing when they throttle the tempo back, such as on the title track where they just sound a bit off.

Overall I would say it's a decent, albeit flawed, slab of blackened thrash with two or three really good tracks such as Tower of Life, Stigma (DSBMthrash?) and Fire at Will that doesn't rival the leaders in the genre, but is still solid enough to warrant the occasional spin. I will look out for the follow-up with great anticipation and hope that they can iron out their technical issues and produce a blackthrash album good enough to put the UK back on the thrash metal map!